When sitting in court holding a levee, the king invariably has in attendance several women, Wabandwa, evil-eye averters or sorcerers.

They talk in feigned voices raised to a shrillness almost amounting to a scream.

They wear dried lizards on their heads, small goat-skin aprons trimmed with little bells, diminutive shields and spears set off with cock-hackles--their functions in attendance being to administer cups of marwa (plantain wine).

To complete the picture of the court, one must imagine a crowd of pages to run royal messages; they dare not walk for such deficiency in zeal to their master might cost their life.

A further feature of the court consists in the national symbols already referred to--a dog, two spears, and shield.
With the company squatting in large half-circle or three sides of a square many deep before him, in the hollow of which are drummers and other musicians, the king, sitting on his throne in high dignity, issues his orders for the day much to the following effect:--"Cattle, women, and children are short in Uganda; an army must be formed of one to two thousand strong, to plunder Unyoro.